This invention related to the filed of manufacturing, and more particularly to manufacturing of a product based on a formula.
In manufacturing food and cosmetics fragrances, flavors and colors are important to consumer perception of the product. The formulation of fragrances, flavors and colors is more of an art than an analytical science, with results being highly subjective. Traditionally, highly skilled artisans who learn and develop trade secrets over a number of years have handled the blending of fragrances, flavors and colors. Large businesses can employ the highly skilled artisans and experiment with different flavors, fragrances and colors, providing a marketing edge over their competitors. Medium and small manufacturers have had to rely on standardized formulations, partner with a large manufacturer, make significant expenditures, or rely on a flavor kit which contains a profile flavor and additional flavors to make changes with (fine tune). There is a need for fragrances, flavors and colors to be able to be formulated in small quantities without the necessity of a highly skilled artisan.
The present invention is a method and system for customer control of a manufacturing process. The method, comprises the following steps: associating tag descriptors to a corresponding trade secret; formulating a product as a function of a selected number and quantity of the tag descriptors; transmitting the tag formulation to a manufacturing system; and decoding said tag formulation into a corresponding trade secret formulation; wherein the corresponding trade secret formulation is not accessible by the customer.